15 STYLES OF DISTORTED THINKING

Filtering – You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a
situation

Polarized Thinking – things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you’re a failure.
There is no middle ground

Overgeneralization – You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence.
If something bad happens once you expect it to happen over and over again.

Mind Reading – Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way
they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward you.

Castastrophizing – You expect disaster, you notice or hear about a problem and start “what if’s”. What
if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?”

Personalization – Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also
compare yourself to others, trying to determine who’s smarter, better looking, etc.

Control Fallacies – If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The
fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.

Fallacy of Fairness – You feel resentful because you think you know what’s fair but other people won’t
agree with you.

Blaming – You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other tack and blame yourself for
every problem or reversal.

Should – You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break
the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

Emotional Reasoning – You believe that what you feel must be true automatically. If you feel stupid and
boring, then you must be stupid and boring.

Fallacy of Change – You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole
them enough. You need to change people because your hope for happiness seems to depend entirely on
them.

Global Labelling – You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgement.

Being Right – You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being
wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness.

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy – You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to pay-off, as if there were
someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn’t come.